Installation & Performance

Test System:
• Pentium 4 3.0C
• Abit IC7-MAX3 Motherboard
• 1 Gig Corsair TwinX 4000Pro DDR RAM
• ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Video Card
• Audigy ZS Platinum Audio Card
• 3 Western Digital 200gig SATA hard drives @ 7200rpm
• Plextor 708A DVD-RW
• Pioneer DVR-108 DL DVD-RW
• Mitsumi 7 in 1 Card reader
• Cooler Master Real Power 450W Power supply
• Silverstone TJ05 case
 

One of the items that might give someone trouble installing this unit is clearance. On my IC7 the OTES cooling shroud interfered with proper installation. I installed the Ice Age with the fan facing the video card, hopefully pulling cooler air up from the PCI area and blowing it right into the power supply, and on out the exhaust. The big areas that need to be clear are just on the outside of each of the clips on the P4 bracket on the motherboard. The high speed fan did not play well with the supplied fan controller in the TJ05…it would start up fine, and then shut off after about five seconds. I resorted to using a 4 pin to 3 pin adaptor.

Testing consisted of leaving the system at idle overnight to achieve an idle baseline. Temps were taken using MBM 5, with an attached probe providing verification. The stock thermal compound was removed in favor of some Arctic Silver 5. Then the system was subjected to a load test using SiSoft’s SANDRA Burn-In Wizard and Prime95 simultaneously for an hour, and a second reading was taken. All measurements were taken at an ambient temp of 25°C, +/- 5°C. For comparison, I’ve included scores from our previous heatsink tests, which were all conducted under similar conditions.

Now, there are some inequalities with this selection of heatsinks that should be mentioned. First off, the only member of this group that features an all aluminum construction like the Ice Age is Arctic-Cooling’s 4ProL. Although quieter by a large margin, it comes in only slightly behind the Ice Age in terms of performance at idle. I chose the 4ProL as the closest direct competitor, as the design of the aluminum heatsink is very similar between the two. The big difference is the copper heatpipes, which clearly flex their power in the load tests. The rest of the Heatsinks on this list are either all copper, such as the Hyper 6, or they are a hybrid copper/aluminum like the Swiftech and Stock Intel. The stock Intel heatsink used in this review is the one that normally ships with the higher speed models and features a copper core.

The Ice Age makes no significant attempt to be quiet…it’s all about the performance. As demonstrated here, you can see that all that airflow posts an impressive load temp of only 35 degrees. The low temps are once again limited by the temperature of the room, so there’s a cap at about 30 degrees or so.

Next: Conclusions